(Zaman Al Wasl)- Death toll of regime’s major offensive on Eastern Ghouta suburbs reached a total of 100 as more than 400 people have been wounded in bloody Monday, local activists, rescuing group and monitoring said.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said regime airstrikes battered the towns of Eastern Ghouta, leaving 75 civilians dead.
"The regime is bombing Eastern Ghouta to pave the way for a ground offensive," Observatory head, Rami Abdel-Rahman said.
Held by rebels since 2012, Eastern Ghouta is now the last opposition-controlled pocket around Damascus.
The Observatory and Syrian daily newspaper Al-Watan had said negotiations were under way for the evacuation of militants from the enclave.
But regime forces ramped up military pressure on Eastern Ghouta starting Sunday, sending more than 260 rockets sailing onto opposition-controlled towns there.
The bombing continued Monday, sending terrified civilians in the enclave searching for cover, AFP's correspondents said.
Artillery fire also hit residential areas in besieged Eastern Ghouta, killing four civilians, including three children in the town of Merc and another in Sakba.
Eastern Ghouta falls within a network of de-escalation zones -- endorsed by Turkey, Russia and Iran -- in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.
Bashar Assad has dispatched reinforcements there in recent weeks in an apparent bid to retake the region.
On Sunday, large military reinforcements arrived from Qalamoun region to the edge of Eastern suburbs of Damascus to back the regime forces fighting in the major offensive against rebel factions, rebel commander told Zaman al-Wasl.
Said Saif, the spokesman of the Ahmed al-Abdu Brigade said, “On Saturday [we] have witnessed the dispersal of several regime forces flying checkpoints all along the crossroads linking the al-Atibet checkpoint east of al-Dumayr city and the Abu Ratb checkpoint east of the city.
The move comes as the forces of Suhail al-Hassan, known as the Tiger, arrive to the al-Dumayr area in the Eastern Qalamoun in preparation for launching a large-scale military operation on the Eastern Ghouta.” (With Agencies)
Zaman Al Wasl
Comments About This Article
Please fill the fields below.